That Rabbit
by Revever
Summary: Mr. Gold was firmly convinced that Belle should get for her birthday everything she'd want. When she saw these bunnies in the pet store window the fate was sealed. A bunny it was.


A/N: Missing scene from my story No Greater Power, happening between chapters 5 and 6, but may be read outside of NGP, happening somewhere after S3 finale (S4 ignored).

Dedicated to my beta for all the evilness involved in the creation of Thumper. She knows.

Thumper will make an appearance also in my modern AU series.

* * *

He really did not want to do this. But it was for Belle's birthday and he knew she would not want him to magic her present out of thin air. Gold sighed and entered the shop. Ursula and Cruella's Pet World, really... And both of them were sitting behind the counter, gossiping. When they saw him, they exchanged anxious looks.

'We don't sell potion ingredients,' said Ursula moving to him. 'We sell pets. And fishes. As pets.'

'Oh, I am well aware of that, dearie,' he smiled.

'So what are you doing here?'

'Buying pets, obviously.'

Cruella smirked.

'The mighty Dark One buying himself a pet. Feeling so alone, darling? How come you need a pet when you have a wife?'

Gold shoot her an irritated look.

'I am buying a pet for my wife, obviously.'

'Oh.' Cruella looked back with wide eyes. 'And how come she wants a pet when she has a brand new husband? Maybe this isn't the shop you really need after all?'

Only the thought of Belle stopped him from evaporating Cruella's smile along with her face, body and the entire building. Ursula threw Cruella a warning look and got to business.

'Alright, what pet does she want?'

Gold took a deep breath.

'She liked those bunnies from the shopping window.'

Now Ursula went completely poker face and Cruella hid behind the counter choking with suppressed laughter.

'Wait a minute and don't kill her,' said Ursula in her best professional voice and went to the shopping window. Very quickly Gold found himself looking at the silvery-white bunny with little brown patches of fur.

'This is Thumper,' said Ursula holding the bunny by the skin at its neck, with her other hand under its hind legs. 'The most curious and intelligent one from the whole litter. Do you want him?'

'Yes,' said Gold. He certainly wasn't going to spend any more minutes than strictly necessary here. 'Pack also all the things it would need.'

'Sure,' said Ursula with relief. She quickly put the bunny in the cardboard box and went on to select a cage, chew proof water bottle, colorful feeding dishes, veggie basket and hay manger to be hung inside the cage, bright orange harness and leash, small carrier, packs of wood sawing for bedding, packs of hay, packs of special food, vials of vitamins and supplements, packs of calcium to chew, grooming kit with trimmers and brushes of various sizes, castle-themed playhouse for indoors, playpen for the garden, chew toys and play balls. Surely one small bunny didn't need that many things?...

All the time Cruella was choking under the counter and Gold just hoped she would choke to death. She paused only to threaten him with taking pictures from shop's monitoring system so everybody in town could see the Dark One buying himself a sweet little bunny. It would be a marvelous advertisement for their shop anyway.

'Do you need anything else for your wife's bunny?' asked Ursula with an air of perfect saleswomen and kicked Cruella quiet. As if he would know!

'I guess not.'

'Then it's 400 dollars total,' said Ursula.

He just sighed. Surely it shouldn't cost so much. But he wasn't in the mood for arguing. He was in the mood for vanishing from the shop as quickly as possible.

'You can pay me 400 dollars less for rent this month then,' he said in a menacing voice and dematerialized with the bunny and all its things. He appeared straight in the house, not bothering with the car. He could retrieve it later.

He looked at all the things on the floor and a cardboard box that was very visibly moving. Then he just magically arranged it all on the coffee table or the floor next to it and created colorful wrappings and bows on them.

Suddenly he felt very tired. Standing in the shop and enduring Cruella's jests or Ursula's carefully blank expressions without the ability to really pay them back made him feel like an idiot. But he could do that and much more for his Belle.

He just needed a little time for himself before he'll call Belle and ask her to close the library early. He sat on the sofa, ignoring thumps coming from the box in the center of the table.

* * *

'Rumple? Rumple, are you home?'

He woke up in the darkness and for a moment he didn't know where he was. He felt his heart racing and suddenly he couldn't catch his breath.

'Belle?' he managed in a pitiful, small voice.

'Rumple? What are you doing in here in the dark?' Belle entered the room and suddenly the lights were on, he was in his own home, looking at his own wife. He managed to take a deep breath.

'Belle, hello,' he smiled.

'Were you sleeping? I'm sorry, did I wake you?'

'No, no, it's alright.' He stood up. 'I... I'm the one who should be sorry, I wanted to call you earlier, I prepared... I mean...'

Belle smiled and hugged him.

'Happy birthday, Belle,' he said, burying his face in her hair. They stood like that for a long moment. She seemed to be content to just be this near and he needed to feel her close so much.

Then he remembered the presents. And the cake that he didn't have the time to pull out from the refrigerator and onto the plates. And the tea that he didn't made.

'Rumple?' Belle must have sensed his nervousness.

'I...' he turned towards the coffee table. 'I have something for you.'

'Oh, I see,' she smiled widely. 'And I can't wait to unpack it all. You have made a very thorough job with packing, I can't tell what can be in all those boxes,' she smiled even wider, in anticipation, and Gold smiled too. 'Well, except that one.. what's that?' She reached for the box and took it, looking curiously. Gold felt all the blood rushing down from his head leaving him dizzy and then returning when he blushed bright red.

The box with the bunny. Well, it wasn't the box _with_ the bunny anymore. It was very much without it.

'Rumple, what's going on?'

'I...' he sat down on the sofa, not sure if he should cry, beg for forgiveness or just pass out and not have to deal with it.

'Rumple, are you alright?'

She kneeled down in front of him. She was still holding the box. And she expected answers.

'Thumper...' he managed.

'Excuse me?...'

'Oh, Belle, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I've ruined everything...'

'Hey, hey, stop that, alright, stop that,' she put the box down and now had both hands holding his own. 'You didn't ruin anything. Everything is fine. But tell me what is going on, okay?'

'I've bought you a bunny. You liked them so much yesterday when we went shopping.'

Belle's face lighted with joy like a Christmas decoration.

'But I have fallen asleep and the bunny must have chewed through the box and escaped...'

'Hey, that's alright, we'll find him,' Belle smiled. 'Oh, it's even better when I must look for him.'

She had such a wonderful look of anticipation, like Bae had on his birthdays, like... Gold forcefully stopped himself from thinking along that way. He had a bunny to find. Whatever that sounded like...

The most curious and intelligent from the whole litter as Ursula said. Indeed. By the time they found the little bugger on the first floor, in the overthrown trash can under Gold's own desk and chewing on Gold's papers, Belle was throwing him alarmingly concerned looks. It shouldn't be this way. She shouldn't be concerned, on her own birthday, over what emotional effect not finding the bunny will have on him. No. This was ridiculous. And this was supposed to be for her and he managed to ruin it. He fought the urge to find it by magic. Belle didn't want to find it by magic. She said it's just a little bunny, probably scared in new, unfamiliar place and magic will frighten it even more.

That and of course Belle thought that even a bit of magic might be too much if not really necessary. But after first ten minutes of searching he started to think that the bunny must be either dead or dying and he didn't want Belle to find _that_ on her birthday.

It was then even more irritating when they found it safe and very self-satisfied. Especially when it turned out that it used Gold's rug as a litter box.

But Belle was in such awe.

'Oh, he's so sweet!' she exclaimed, carefully lifting the bunny and hugging it close. Gold smiled, showing her how to properly hold the animal. 'Thank you so, so, so much! You said his name was Thumper?'

'Yes, that was what the... saleswoman said. She said he is the most intelligent and curious one among his brothers and sisters.'

Belle's face brightened even more.

'I've bought him all he needs, I hope, but if there is anything else we can buy it tomorrow.' It would be a pain to go there again but this was for Belle. And he'd gladly buy her the whole shop if she wanted, especially after all this mess.

'Do you want to hold him?'

Gold blinked. Not really and it sounded really weird for a moment, but he obligingly reached for the bunny.

Thumper had other ideas and put his little claws into Belle's sweater. Belle looked at Gold apologetically.

'He loves you already,' he said quickly and with a smile. But this wasn't right. It was ridiculous, being rejected by irritating little bunny shouldn't be this unpleasant. All the same, when they went downstairs to look through all the bunny utensils, Gold realized that he felt jealous. About Belle's attention of course. But also a bit about bunny's attention, to his eternal shame.

* * *

Later that day _that rabbit_ proved to be even more of a menace.

'Your rabbit hates me.'

'Nonsense, Rumple, you just frightened him.'

'He bit me.'

'Well, you interrupted him eating.'

'He was eating my papers. And not from the trash can this time!'

'So don't leave them everywhere he may see them.'

'Belle...'

'Rumple...'


End file.
